Blue Angels and Thunderbirds

Nathon

Navy painted their birds dark blue on the top so they would blend in
with the ocean and light blue on the bottom so they would blend in
with the sky. They also painted their birds and accepted the hundreds
of pounds of weight penalty, to help prevent corrosion from the salt
air. The Navy F2H3 (Banshee) I flew in 1955 was painted all gray. Not
sure when they changed their paint schemes over the years.

The Air Force ended up not painting most of their aircraft and took
the several hundred pounds of weight savings. They did paint some when
corrosion was a factor as I recall.

The stealth birds they fly at night, F-117, B-2 are painted black (of
course G

Any 'old' Navy types who remember when the Navy changed their paint
schemes?

Big John


On Mon, 20 Oct 2003 00:45:32 GMT, Nathan Gilliatt
wrote:

In article HqDkb.54323$La.52035@fed1read02,
"BTIZ" wrote:

BTW: I saw the F-117A, but did anyone see the B-2? I didn't think it was
that stealthy.

well.. stealthy is not how easy it is to "see" with your Mark-I eyeball...
but painted black for night flying does help..

The STEALTH is how it looks on RADAR.. what type of radar return it
REFLECTS..

Black paint is for nighttime low observable (LO) qualities--visual
stealth. Seems to be a significant mission requirement for lots of
military aircraft. I initially was going to say "these days," but WW2
airplanes were sky blue on the bottom sometimes, weren't they?

I don't recall the details, but I think I saw someone actually trying
the active camouflage that Dale Brown (Day of the Cheetah?) put it a
book years ago. The aircraft essentially shows you a picture of what's
on the other side, making it disappear.

- Nathan